Putin to Russian business leaders: It could be worse

REUTERS/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/KremlinRussia’s President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with members of the international expert council of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and representatives of the international investment community, part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2015 (SPIEF 2015) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 18, 2015.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is giving a keynote speech and speaking with Charlie Rose on Bloomberg TV at the three-day Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.

“We have managed to stabilise the situation,” Putin said, according to a translator. “We are successful in going through the difficulties.”

Putin: We were on the edge of a “deep crisis” late last year but we prevented it from happening.
— Paul Sonne (@PaulSonne) June 19, 2015

#Putin at #SPIEF2015: We have limited access to investments, GDP down 2.2% in Q1 yoy, but there is no crisis
— Yury Barmin (@yurybarmin) June 19, 2015

#putin rattling off numbers at high rate. But so far saying that economy is bad, but not as bad as it could have been, because we managed it
— Matthew Chance (@mchancecnn) June 19, 2015

Tsipras arrived at the forum Thursday and has met with top executives of Russian gas giant Gazprom, deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev told AFP. Putin is set to talk to Tsipras on Friday.

The Greek leader — who has openly criticised Western sanctions against Russia — is however unlikely to get any help in Saint Petersburg with the immediate problem of Greece’s June 30 deadline to repay 1.6 billion euros ($US1.8 billion) to one of its international creditors, analysts say.